Performance of Al2O3 particle reinforced glass-based seals in planar solid oxide fuel cells

Glass-based materials are usually considered as excellent seals for jointing adjacent components in planar solid oxide fuel cells, but the uncontrollable crystallization in the glass may cause delamination and micro-cracks in such seals. To solve this problem, Al2O3 ceramic particles were added to a BaO–CaO–Al2O3–B2O3–SiO2 glass system to reduce negative effects caused by crystalline phase on the gas tightness and the joint strength in the seals. At an operating temperature of 750 °C, the glass-based seals with 20 wt% Al2O3 addition (GA80) exhibited extremely low leakage rates (~0.002 sccm/cm under an input gas pressure of 13.6 kPa) and higher shear strength (3.31 MPa). The Al2O3 ceramic addition and the crystalline phase BaAl2Si2O8 reinforced the glass matrix. Further thermal cycle analyses indicated that leakage rates for the GA80 seals remained at around 0.0025 sccm/cm after 10 thermal cycles, which was consistent with minor microstructural change and good interface bonding. Single cell testing with of GA80 seals was performed and the results demonstrated stable electrochemical performance through 6 thermal cycles at an open circuit voltage of 1.16–1.18 V, as well as a power density above 546 mW/cm2 at a current density of 925 mA/cm2. These results showed the high thermal cycle stability of the glass/Al2O3 composite seals in intermediate temperature planar solid oxide fuel cells.     

Data-driven diagnosis of the high-pressure hydrogen leakage in fuel cell vehicles based on relevance vector machine

The hydrogen pressure inside tanks and its adjacent pipes can reach up to 70 MPa in fuel cell vehicles. This is the weak links of hydrogen leakage. The diagnosis time of mainstream hydrogen leakage diagnosis method based on hydrogen concentration sensors (HCSs) is easily affected by the number and location of installed sensors. In this study, a data-driven diagnosis method is proposed for the high-pressure hydrogen leakage. Fisher discrimination analysis and linear least squares fitting are used for data preprocessing, relevance vector machine is used for pattern recognition. When the total volume of tanks is 82 L and the hydrogen leakage flow rate is larger than 2 g/s, the diagnosis accuracy of the proposed method is higher than 95% and the diagnosis time is constant. When the leakage location is far away from HCSs, the proposed method can the diagnose hydrogen leakage in a shorter time than mainstream method.     

Study on the difference of dispersion behavior between hydrogen and methane in utility tunnel

Compared to liquid/gas hydrogen tank, the pipeline is an economical way for hydrogen transportation. With the quick development of utility tunnel in China, hydrogen pipeline enters the gas compartment can be expected soon. However, all the safety requirements of the gas compartment in the current standards are designed for natural gas, and the applicability for hydrogen is unknown. Therefore, a series of studies were started to investigate the safety of hydrogen in utility tunnel. In this work, a real utility tunnel locates at Shanghai was selected as the physical object. A 3D numerical model was built and successfully validated by a scaled tunnel test. The model has the maximum deviation of +9.5%. After that, a comparatively study of the dispersion behavior of CH₄ and H₂ was conducted. The assumed scenario was a 20 mm small-hole leaks with gauge pressure of 1.0 MPa in the middle of the tunnel. Numerical results shown that, H₂ has a larger dispersion velocity and higher concentration, and is more dangerous compared to CH₄. The current emergency ventilation strategy of air change rate of 12 times/h is not effective enough to dilute the H₂ flammable cloud. The alarm time of the testing points shown strong linear law. There was a sharp variation in the range of 20%–100% LFL (Lower Flammable Limit), so the alarm strategy in the tunnel standards is too ideal for both CH₄ and H₂. The numerical results in the present study could provide a guidance for the design and safety management of the hydrogen tunnel.     

Stochastic evaluation of leakages through holes in wrinkle networks of composite liners

This paper presents a study on stochastic evaluation of leakages through holes in wrinkle networks of composite liners. The statistical parameters of wrinkles are used as indexes to describe the spatial distributions of wrinkles in a wrinkle network and the wrinkle density is modeled as a random field in the proposed approach, which allows the construction of a database about how wrinkles may be distributed in different conditions and provides input parameters for leakage evaluation at the design stage when the site has not been constructed yet and the aerial image of the wrinkle network (AWN) is unavailable. Statistical analyses were performed on wrinkle geometric parameters and wrinkle density of wrinkles from three sites reported in the literature. The procedures of generating random wrinkle networks (RWNs) based on the statistical parameters of wrinkles are introduced. The proposed approach was applied to typical examples and showed sufficient accuracy when compared to the evaluated leakages based on the corresponding AWNs. Wrinkle density is recommended to be modeled as random field.     

Correlation of the leakage flow rate with pressure changes in a clearance-sealed piston prover

Leakage flow rate is one of the most important contributions to the measurement uncertainty when measuring small gas flow rates with a clearance-sealed piston prover. Our previous study has shown that the systematic effects related to the change of the gas viscosity can be successfully corrected, whereas the effects related to the reproducibility of the leakage flow rate are poorly understood. This paper focuses on the interpretation and correction of the reproducibility related effects by analysing experimentally identified variations of the leakage flow rate and the gas pressure in the inclined piston prover. Small changes of the leakage flow in the inclined piston prover indicate that the position of the piston relative to the cylinder remains approximately the same. The obtained relationship between the leakage flow rate and the gas pressure below the piston led to the pressure-based correction of the leakage flow rate.     

Electric field dependence of ferroelectric stability in BiFeO3 thin films co-doped with Er and Mn

Bi_0.9Er_0.1Fe_1−xMn_xO₃ (BEFM_xO, x = 0.00–0.03) films are synthesized by a sol–gel technique. The BEFO film exhibits a conduction mechanism based on electron tunneling. The high applied electric field causes dissociation of the defect complex, and the resulting oxygen vacancies contribute to fake polarization. Consequently, the BEFO film has poor polarization stability at high applied electric fields. Coexistence of two phases (with space groups R3c:H and R3m:R) and reduced concentrations of oxygen vacancies and Fe²⁺ in BEFM_xO are achieved by co-doping with Er and Mn. The presence of bulk-based conduction in the BEFM_xO films then leads to ferroelectric domain switching contributing to the real polarization and to excellent ferroelectric stability. In addition, the BEFM_0.02O film shows a typical symmetrical butterfly curve, the highest remnant polarization of ~109 μC/cm², and the highest switching current of ~1.66 mA. It also has the smallest oxygen vacancy concentration and thus the smallest amount of defect complex, which means that there are fewer pinning effects on ferroelectric domains and therefore excellent ferroelectric stability. This excellent ferroelectric stability makes the BEFM_xO films obtain good stability and reliability in the application of ferroelectric memory devices.     

Leakage mechanisms of partially self-polarized BiFeO3 film

Partially self-polarized BiFeO₃ (BFO) film was fabricated on Pt(111)/Ti/SiO₂/Si substrate by a metal organic decomposition process at 480?°C. The influence of soaking times on leakage properties was discussed. The soaking times considered were those that could keep the leakage currents being measured in a steady state condition during the leakage tests. The length of soaking time during leakage measurement should be greater than or equal to 500?ms to rule out the contribution of backswitching to leakage properties. Different leakage characteristics induced by the built-in negative field occurred under positive and negative fields. The "flat-band" feature of the leakage current curves may result from competition between domain switching and the switching of defect complexes. It is suggested that the "unswitched" mode should be adopted during leakage measurement in BFO films. Additionally, negative bias should be adopted in negatively polarized BFO films and positive bias should be adopted in positively polarized BFO films.     

DEM study of particle motion in novel high-speed seed metering device

This paper presents a numerical study on the motions of seed particles in a novel high-speed seed metering device based on the discrete element method. The effects of key parameters, including inlet velocity of particles, feeding rates and the angle of seed cleaning element, are investigated by a series of controlled numerical experiments. The results show that in the seed filling area of the device, a better match of particle velocity and the tangential linear velocity of the seeding plate can improve the seed filling performance. The number of particles remaining in the metering device is an important factor that affects the device performance. A large number of particles in the device results in more multiple seeding, and a small number causes more leakage seeding. Under the conditions of the seeding plate rotational speed at 194.5 rpm (corresponding to the high ground speed of 14 km/h), feeding rate at ~14 seeds/s can ensure that around 24 seed particles are maintained in the device which generates minimum leakage and multiple seeding. The studies of the effect of the seed cleaning element angle show that an appropriate angle (e.g., 30°) can effectively enhance the clearing ability, increase the uniform stability of particles backflow, and improve the seeding performance.     

Evaluating leakages through GMB/GCL composite liners considering random hole distributions in wrinkle networks

This paper presents a study on the development of a hydraulic connectivity analysis-based approach for evaluating leakage rates through geomembrane (GMB)-geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) composite liners considering random hole distributions in a GMB wrinkle network. An algorithm for hydraulic connectivity analysis was developed to find the hydraulically connected wrinkles from a wrinkle network, and an explicitly expressed criterion is proposed to define the hydraulic connection between wrinkles under the assumption that only one of the two adjacent wrinkles is possible to be damaged. A Monte Carlo simulation was used to evaluate the probability weighted average of the total leakage through multiple randomly distributed holes considering numerous possible combinations of locations of holes. The proposed approach was applied to typical examples reported in the literature and shows that it can objectively quantify the effect of the hydraulic properties of the liner and overburden pressure on the hydraulic connectivity between wrinkles in a wrinkle network. The proposed approach also allowed assessing the effect of different probabilities of various hole distributions on the calculated leakage, which was demonstrated to be non-negligible, especially when the hole frequency is small.     

Fault-tolerant control through dynamic surface triple-step approach for proton exchange membrane fuel cell air supply systems

Due to complex electrochemical and thermal phenomena, varying operations towards automotive applications, and vulnerable ancillaries in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant control (FTC) design have become important aspects to improve the reliability, safety and performance of PEMFC systems. This paper presents a novel FTC scheme for automotive PEMFC air supply systems via coordinated control of the air flow rate and the pressure in cathodes. A dynamic surface triple-step approach is first proposed considering nonlinear dynamics and the multi-input multi-output (MIMO) property, which combines the advantage of dynamic surface control in avoiding an “explosion of complexity” and the advantage of triple-step control in guaranteeing a simple structure and high performance. The normal case, the faulty case at the supply manifold and the faulty case in the back pressure valve are considered in the FTC design, with the stability of the overall system proved using Lyapunov methods. MATLAB/Simulink simulations with a high-fidelity PEMFC model verify the effectiveness of the proposed FTC scheme in regulating the air flow rate and oxygen excess ratio and maintaining the pressure of the cathode at a desired level even under faulty conditions.